Saad’s Halal: The Torpedo

I must admit that I have a bit of bias towards Saad’s, which is a large part of the reason I am addressing it first. I have to get it out of the way to ensure total objectivity, as I have a history with Saad’s, and reviewing their falafel during/after the rest of the series…

Making Tabouleh at Camp

On Tuesday we had a visit from Maria Nacouzi who is from Lebanon and a mother of one of our campers. She demonstrated how to make one of Lebanon’s national dishes: tabouleh. Maria explained that there are regional variations on this dish but that the abundance of lemon juice and a small quantity of bulgur…

Making Khobz

We want to thank Yasmine and Khalil Bdeir for transporting us from the playground of Springside School to the Levant by making khboz, “bread” in Arabic, at Camp yesterday. Yasmina woke up at 6am to make a veritable vat of dough from 10 pounds of flour, water, yeast, and salt. An experienced baker, she doesn’t…

Reviving Culture Through Cooking

  The meal that Chef Ramzi was presented within Deir el Aachayer in southeastern Lebanon.   In anticipation of Camp and its theme—the arts, culture, and environment of Lebanon—I have been reading about this tiny country’s rich cuisine. I happen to find eating and cooking to be one of the great pleasures of life so…

Playgrounds For Palestine

At the end of my first week working with Al-Bustan Seeds of Culture, Hazami invited my coworker Musa and I to attend a fundraiser for a group called Playgrounds For Palestine. The name is rather self-explanatory – the mission of the organization is to raise money for playgrounds to be manufactured and built, using all…